How The Dodd-Frank Protection Act over the conflict mineral market worked and why the hold up
Much like "blood diamonds", observers say the sale of the so-called "conflict minerals" by armed militias to corporations making consumer goods for U.S markets is fueling - and funding - atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where an ongoing war has killed over five million people in the most bloody conflict in Africa since the Rwandan genocide.
Part of the law would require all companies listed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to report whether they are sourcing tungsten, tin, tantalum and gold from areas of the DRC linked to militia human rights abuses.
But the provision is hung up in a rule-making process at the SEC - the body charged with outlining how that particular provision of Dodd-Frank will be spelled out. The SEC has missed its own deadline to outline rules by eight months.
Supporters of the law, including international human rights groups and civil society groups in the United States and DRC, are asking what the hold-up is, and Global Witness, a natural resource conflict watch group, says lives are on the line.
Global Witness has carried out its own investigations, including supply chain mapping, and reports that the trade in conflict minerals is fueling land-grabs and displacements in eastern Kivu Province of DRC, where "human rights abuses, including gender-based violence such as rape and sexual slavery have reached catastrophic proportions."
Supporters of the rules say the minerals covered - tungsten, tin, tantalum - can be traced to just a few smelters globally. They also counter that the provisions won't block trade, and that the rules will simply require that corporations find out whether they are buying minerals supplied by armed groups in the DRC, disclose that information, and then take "due diligence" measures to source from other mines.
The U.S. state of California - the eighth largest economy in the world - used the provision as a model for its own bill, passed in September, which prohibits the state from doing business with companies that use conflict minerals.
Another, geographically broader provision of Dodd-Frank, also related to transparency, is held up in the rule-making process at the SEC.
That provision would require oil, gas, and mining companies to report to the SEC what they pay in taxes, royalties, fees, production entitlements, and bonuses to governments around the world. Publish What You Pay, an anti-corruption coalition of 600 religious, environmental, and civil society organisations, has been working to implement the measure since 2004.
Much like "blood diamonds", observers say the sale of the so-called "conflict minerals" by armed militias to corporations making consumer goods for U.S markets is fueling - and funding - atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where an ongoing war has killed over five million people in the most bloody conflict in Africa since the Rwandan genocide.
Part of the law would require all companies listed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to report whether they are sourcing tungsten, tin, tantalum and gold from areas of the DRC linked to militia human rights abuses.
But the provision is hung up in a rule-making process at the SEC - the body charged with outlining how that particular provision of Dodd-Frank will be spelled out. The SEC has missed its own deadline to outline rules by eight months.
Supporters of the law, including international human rights groups and civil society groups in the United States and DRC, are asking what the hold-up is, and Global Witness, a natural resource conflict watch group, says lives are on the line.
Global Witness has carried out its own investigations, including supply chain mapping, and reports that the trade in conflict minerals is fueling land-grabs and displacements in eastern Kivu Province of DRC, where "human rights abuses, including gender-based violence such as rape and sexual slavery have reached catastrophic proportions."
Supporters of the rules say the minerals covered - tungsten, tin, tantalum - can be traced to just a few smelters globally. They also counter that the provisions won't block trade, and that the rules will simply require that corporations find out whether they are buying minerals supplied by armed groups in the DRC, disclose that information, and then take "due diligence" measures to source from other mines.
The U.S. state of California - the eighth largest economy in the world - used the provision as a model for its own bill, passed in September, which prohibits the state from doing business with companies that use conflict minerals.
Another, geographically broader provision of Dodd-Frank, also related to transparency, is held up in the rule-making process at the SEC.
That provision would require oil, gas, and mining companies to report to the SEC what they pay in taxes, royalties, fees, production entitlements, and bonuses to governments around the world. Publish What You Pay, an anti-corruption coalition of 600 religious, environmental, and civil society organisations, has been working to implement the measure since 2004.
Sources:
allAfrica.com
allAfrica.com
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